Sunday Sermon, 1 March 2026

The Second Sunday of Lent

A reading from the Gospel According to John

Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. He came to Jesus by night and said to him, ‘Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.’ Jesus answered him, ‘Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.’ Nicodemus said to him, ‘How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?’ Jesus answered, ‘Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be astonished that I said to you, “You must be born from above.” The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.’ Nicodemus said to him, ‘How can these things be?’ Jesus answered him, ‘Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?

‘Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.

‘Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him..

John 3.1–17 NRSVA

What do you do if you are a Pharisee and a respected member of the Jewish Council, the Sanhedrin, but you are fascinated and intrigued by a charismatic preacher from Galilee; a man who is showing God’s power through the amazing things he does and says - making the lame walk and the blind see? What do you do if you are desperate to meet him and talk to him, but you don’t want your fellow Pharisees to know, as it wouldn’t go down well with them? You go under cover of darkness, hoping that you won’t be spotted. That’s what Nicodemus did, but the conversation did not go quite as he was expecting.

Firstly, there were Jesus’s puzzling statements about birth. He said that to enter the kingdom of God you need to be born from above; a sort of second birth – different from your first birth because it’s of a spiritual nature. Jesus talked of being born of water and the Spirit, which immediately brings baptism into mind. Everyone in Judea knew about baptism because of John the Baptist’s work, which was continued by Jesus’ disciples, but John’s baptism was only with water. The baptism Jesus offers is baptism in the Spirit – new life that bubbles up inside you, invigorating and sustaining you, and Jesus stressed that this double Baptism – water and Spirit – is required for membership of the kingdom of God.

Our own Baptisms were of water and Spirit. Most of us were probably baptised as babies, so have no recollection of it, but the baptismal service includes not only the pouring of water onto the candidate’s head, symbolizing new life, but prayer that they will be filled with the Spirit, and know that they are loved as God’s children.

Then Jesus started talking about the wind; how it blows where it chooses, and you don’t know where it comes from or where it goes. For Nicodemus this will have had some significance, for the Hebrew word ‘ruach’, which Jesus will have used, can mean wind, or breath or spirit.  So, Jesus was talking about the Spirit of God, which, like the wind, is a free and unpredictable agent; a wind that can cause gentle ripples in your life or dangerous stormy waves. Nicodemus may have understood the allusion to the Spirit, but he was still puzzled. Jesus teased him for his lack of understanding and went on to explain the importance of the Son of Man (that is himself) as the intermediary between earth and heaven.

In a foretelling of his crucifixion and ascension he reminded Nicodemus of Moses lifting up the serpent in the wilderness. This story can be found in the Book of Numbers in the Bible (21.6-9). During their wanderings in the wilderness, the Israelites grumbled against Moses and were punished by poisonous snakes invading the camp and killing many of them. God told Moses to make a serpent out of bronze, put it on a pole and hold it up. Anyone who looked at the serpent on the pole would live.  Thus, the serpent – a symbol of sin since the Genesis story of the Garden of Eden - became a symbol of healing and saving.  Jesus said that in the same way, the Son of Man will be lifted up. With hindsight we can see that he was alluding to the cross; sin will be vanquished on the cross, which will become the symbol of salvation and also the ladder between heaven and earth. What greater sign of God’s love could we have than that he gave his only Son to save us all?  And in giving his Son, he was giving Himself.

So, Jesus was offering Nicodemus a way to find out what God is like and what his purposes are for the world. He was also offering a way to enter the realm of God - but that would need commitment and it would need faith. Did Nicodemus commit himself to follow Jesus or did he leave the house more confused that ever? Well, we can perhaps make a guess by looking at the two more further mentions him in John’s gospel.

In chapter 7 when the chief priests and Pharisees wanted to arrest Jesus, Nicodemus stood up for him saying, ‘Our law does not judge people without first giving them a hearing to find out what they are doing, does it?’ The Pharisees responded by sneering at him, ‘Surely you are not also from Galilee, are you?’ but they did not arrest Jesus. Later, in Chapter 19 after the crucifixion, Nicodemus brought a large quantity of myrrh and aloes to anoint Jesus’s body, and he helped Joseph of Arimathea to lay Jesus in the tomb. After that, we hear no more about him.

Those two extra incidents make it seem very likely that Nicodemus had become disciple of Jesus. That he had moved from incredulity to indecision to belief; the stages that many of us have gone through or maybe are still going through. It’s a big step to commit yourself to Jesus, especially if your family and friends are agnostics or atheists. Even more so in a country where the state frowns on Christianity and you could be persecuted for your beliefs, and there are many places like that around the world.

So, what can we take from today’s Gospel story?

Firstly, Nicodemus came to see Jesus because he was thirsty for knowledge; he wanted to find out more about Jesus and his relationship with God. Do we feel drawn to Jesus? Do we limit our understanding of Jesus to what we already know? There is always more of God to discover and enjoy as we encounter him each day in the world about us and the people we meet. Let’s seek the aid of the Holy Spirit to deepen our relationship with God, and in doing so to enhance our trust and faith.

Secondly, how committed are we to Jesus? Would we be prepared to stand up for him if needed, just as Nicodemus did before the Sanhedrin? Would we continue to worship God and keep our faith if we lived in a country where Christians are persecuted, attacked, imprisoned? We don’t know until put to the test – and we pray that we never will be – but it’s an interesting question to ask ourselves.

We are all called to a way of faith. At each step God asks us to trust, to say ‘yes’, to put our lives in God’s hands. But it’s not easy. As Richard Rohr says, ‘It’s like walking around in a pitch-dark room, afraid that we’re going to bump into something or trip or fall…we want desperately to have our pathway illuminated.’  We want certainty, but instead God asks us to have faith.

Nicodemus came in the darkness and moved into the light. May we, who believe that Jesus is the light of the world, continue to move closer to him.